SPRING OPTIMISM MAY FINALLY BE WARRANTED

Spring training is the grandest of all sports deceptions, embedded in the fanciful state of Utopia. All is so charming and fresh, the sweet smell of optimistic zephyrs wafting across the diamonds, where every baseball is hit high and far, every pitch a strike.

It is forever young, forever hopeful. The Rite of Spring is so right … always, until the angry gestures of a 162-armed monster shoo away the pretenders of February and March.

So it is with this in mind that we are lifted to Arizona, to the Elysian fields of Peoria, where the Padres’ pitchers and catchers report today as spring training officially takes flight. And rarely have they entered spring with more enthusiastic reviews.

Pundits consider the Padres a genuine playoff contender, a force in what seems to be a most difficult National League West. It does appear San Diego has done enough in the offseason — lifting player payroll to a team-record and most-respectable $87 million — for its cap to be thrown into the October ring without chuckle.

The key, naturally, is health, and the elimination of drug suspensions that ruined their 2013. Starting catcher Yasmani Grandal was suspended for the first 50 games, blew out his knee July 6 and was lost for the season. Starting shortstop and catalyst Everth Cabrera was handcuffed by MLB’s drug police, forced to sit the final 50 games.

Manager Bud Black, who can manage, was obliged to use 145 different starting lineups. A bad thing. But as our Bill Center points out, another similar number — without all the injuries and suspensions — could be a blessing in 2014, because Black now can employ three new switch-hitters and a nice blend of left- and right-handed batsmen.

The Padres didn’t sit still this offseason, but they didn’t subtract. They had a good opportunity to trade third baseman Chase Headley — they need more 2012 Chase now than 2013 Chase — but balked, because they believe he helps give them the best chance to win.

“We have a one-in-three chance of making the playoffs; I like those odds,” Padres CEO Mike Dee says. “We added Benoit and Torres … solid. We’re going to get to the fifth or sixth innings most games. This is going to be about pitching and defense, and our starting lineup has shown we can score enough runs when we’re healthy.

“We started last season 5 and 15 and went 1 and 9 in one stretch of it, which means we were 6 and 24 over a 30-game period. I don’t see that happening again, but to win this division we’re going to have to win 90-plus.”

There is excitement afoot. The Padres drew a record 17,000 to their Fanfest last Saturday, and a few days later announced that at long last Time Warner Cable has reached an agreement with Fox Sports San Diego to televise games about 40 percent of this area had been without.

It’s a big thing. Where once it was anathema, former Padres genius (and Dee mentor) Larry Lucchino had the idea to saturate the San Diego market, televising as many games as possible to create interest. Lucchino also was big on special promotions, and there will be more of those with Dee in charge.

It worked. It got Petco Park built. But the most difficult decoration to put up in any ballpark is a world championship flag.

“We have good owners — and being good owners is not as easy as it sounds,” says Dee, who last July injected his undying energy back into the Padres. “They’ve committed to everything that matters to me. I’m excited.

“Every player, to the man, thinks there’s a different feel to this team; that we’re on track to do something special. An easy barometer in baseball is how many position players show up with pitchers and catchers when they don’t have to be there. Our guys are showing up.”